His debut effort details his meetings over Congress' recess with small businesses across Pennsylvania. Last week Toomey traveled from Erie to Harrisburg to tour plants and meet with owners. The experience seems to have solidified Toomey's already engrained opinions of government involvement in business. (He doesn't like it)

Here's an excerpt:

"Some of the most burdensome regulations have gotten a lot of attention. For example, the 2.3 percent medical device tax in the president’s health care law will be applied to total sales—not profits. Many of our most promising medical device manufacturers are young, small businesses with great promise but, so far, little or no profits. Hitting them with a big new tax will threaten the viability of some of these companies and definitely result in fewer jobs throughout the industry. Today, these companies and their suppliers employ more than 100,000 people in Pennsylvania with the potential to grow significantly. Not only does this tax penalize those researching and developing potential life-saving technologies, it threatens existing and future high-paying manufacturing jobs. That is why I have co-sponsored two pieces of legislation to repeal this onerous tax.

In other cases, obscure regulations and bureaucratic red tape are hurting our small businesses. One company told me how the research and development tax credit intended to help businesses expense new equipment purchases is actually costing them time and money just to qualify through the Internal Revenue Service. A 100-year-old company in central Pennsylvania told me about new Environmental Protection Agency regulations that could force it to replace its boiler at a time when the company cannot afford it. A factory president told me that federal regulators can be very unresponsive in approving food product labels, throwing their entire production schedule off."

As the Senate takes its turn next week on a spending bill for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year, Social Security advocates are warning there are ramifications to the cuts in the House-passed version.

Citing a week-old report by the Democratic staff of the House Ways and Means Committee, a coalition made up of groups like the AFL-CIO, NAACP and the Alliance of Retired Americans sent out releases Friday outling the cost to Pennsylvania if cuts to the Social Security Administration go through.

The SSA has warned that the more than $1 billion sliced from administrative funding to its agency could result in around 20 days of furloughs and closed offices.

In Pennsylvania, according to the Democratic report (which based its results off average daily workloads in Social Security field offices), "23,713 applications for Social Security benefits (retirement, disability, and survivor) could not be processed, 7,670 disabled workers would not be able to appeal their benefit denials, 33,847 babies wouldn’t be assigned Social Security numbers, 125,921 people would go to the Social Security office for help and find the lights off and the doors locked, 83,152 people would call the Social Security office and get no answer."

Hat tip to Philadelphia Inquirer's Tom Fitzgerald who first revealed Sen. Pat Toomey's seven subcommittee assignments, many of which draw on Toomey's expertise in a variety of areas.

As Fitzgerald notes, on the Commerce panel, Toomey will sit on Aviation Operation, Safety and Security. Toomey, a licensed pilot, has his own small plane. On Banking, he will sit on Securities, Insurance, and Investment, which oversees financial derivatives, among other financial instruments. Toomey was a former trader on Wall Street.

His other assignments under Commerce are: Communications, Technology, and the Internet; Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance; and Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Infrastructure, Safety, and Security.

Under Banking, Toomey will also be on Financial Institutions and Consumer Protection; and Housing, Transportation, and Community Development.

The National Journal each year analyzes a series of key votes of each member of Congress and calculates how liberal and conservative the lawmakers are compared to one another. Their results this year show that the Congress in 2010 was more polarized than ever, with Democrats moving further to the left and Republicans to the right.

U.S. Sen. Bob Casey scored 79 percent liberal and 20 percent conservative. Those scores were nearly identical to his ratings in 2008, but a huge leap from 2009 when he was one of the most centrist senators with a 56 percent liberal rating and 44 percent conservative.

Local U.S. House members are moderate overall with Lehigh Valley Republican Charlie Dent being the most consistent. His score of 39 percent liberal and 60 percent conservative has only fluctuated by a few points from year to year.

Tim Holden, one of the most conservative Democrats in the U.S. House, received a 55 percent conservative score, his highest yet. In 2008 he had a liberal score of 59 percent.

Jim Gerlach, a Republican, also had a more conservative year than in the past, scoring 69 percent conservative and 31 percent liberal.

The Pennsylvania lawmakers with the greatest extremes were Lancaster County Republican Joe Pitts, who scored an 88 percent conservative ranking and 12 percent liberal and Allegheny County Democrat Mike Doyle with 92 percent liberal and 8 percent conservative.

As the White House works with the United Nations to determine how to deal with the crisis in Libya, Pennsylvania's senior senator, Bob Casey, is calling on Obama to impose sanctions.

In a statement, Casey, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, said this:

"I strongly condemn the deplorable violence employed by Colonel Qaddafi against peaceful demonstrators in Libya. Along with the international community, the United States should impose tough sanctions on Libya now and show Qaddafi that his barbaric actions violate the most basic norms of how a government should treat its citizens. In addition, the United Nations Security Council should examine the entire array of options available to it, potentially including a no-fly zone over Libya. The killing of innocent demonstrators must stop now.”

Politicoreported Friday morning that the U.S. plans to support a sanctions plan to be put forth by the UN Security Council later in the day. USA Today outlined a list of the White House's available actions against Libya.

For Washington reporters, Congress is a lot like the ex you rationally know was annoying and not a lot of fun, but you can't help missing once is gone. With no legislating happening inside the Beltway, it's easy to forget that it was only a week ago that the House voted through the night until 4 a.m. It's always less painful to remember the good times.

As it goes during recess weeks, the DC news today is mostly just scraps from the week before. But there are some worth picking at.

Crumbs: The U.S. Army used some voodoo mind tricks on U.S. Senators. (Rolling Stone) The Fix examines why Mike Huckabee should be the GOP presidential nominee. Tomorrow it will tell you why he shouldn't. (WaPost) / Senate Democrats let the White House know they are putting together a spending bill with cuts to fend off blame if there's a gov't shutdown. (Politico) / The nation's mayors are not thrilled with purposed budget cuts. (The Hill)

Now Optimist ...
... and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey are not ordinarily words that we'd think
would naturally occur in the same sentence.

But "Practical"? Definitely. "Sober?" Absolutely. We're even willing to throw in a "level-headed" just for good measure. In fact, we'd even leave our daughter with Toomey because we know she'd get a healthy snack and be put to bed on time after being read a few chapters of "The Wealth of Nations."

But chatting with reporters after an appearance before Harrisburg-area business leaders this morning, Pennsylvania's junior United States senator said he's still holding out hope that Congressional leaders and the White House will get their act together and avoid a federal government shutdown next week.

"I hope it doesn't happen. It would be very disruptive," the Zionsville Republican said after an appearance at the Harrisburg Regional Chamber. "And I hope we can reach an agreement."

Toomey said it's likely that Congressional leaders and the White House will agree to a short-term extension of the so-called "continuing resolution" that's kept the government running while Washington bigwigs try to agree on how to fund the final seven months of the fiscal year. They have until March 4 to get a deal and most everyone in Washington is bracing for a shutdown.

"Hopefully, that will buy us time for an agreement for the rest of the year," he said.

Next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., plans to bring a short-term spending bill to the floor for a vote that would keep the government running at its current levels for one month to buy time to debate and negotiate with House Republicans about cuts for the rest of the year.

U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has rejected the idea, and says he won't support current spending levels even for another month. Last week, the House passed a bill that cuts federal funding by $60 billion for the rest of the fiscal 2011 year.

In Harrisburg this morning, Toomey said any conversation about government funding has to include serious conversations about spending cuts, including such sacred cows as the Pentagon.

"We're spending billions of dollars on hardware the military doesn't want," he said. "It's important that we go after that as well."

Toomey talked about some other stuff during his appearance, including the transfer of power in Egypt and the increasingly dangerous situation in Libya.

Toomey told reporters this morning that he's been watching affairs in the Middle East with some degree of "ambivalence." While he's happy to see people rise up after years of tyranny, he said he's concerned that the pro-democracy movements might get hijacked -- as was the case with Iran -- and that the new governments might be worse than those that came before.

Asked whether the United States has a responsibility to step in to help foster democratic institutions in those country, Toomey said that, in the case of Egypt, the U.S. should have done more to foster civil society.

President Obama's decision Wednesday that the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional, so his administration will not legally defend it, inspired one of the country's most fervent opponents of gay marriage to put out a late night statement.

Rick Santorum, who has never been shy about his feelings regarding same-sex couples (in 2004, he asserted that if same-sex marriage was allowed it could be a slippery-slope to bestiality or, “man on dog"), had this to say about Obama's decision:

“When the definition of marriage has been put before the people, they have time and time again – from Maine to California – stood up in defense of the traditional family. President Obama’s refusal to defend a law that was overwhelmingly supported on both sides of the aisle and signed into law by a president of his own party is an affront to the will of the people. This is yet another example of our president’s effort to erode the very traditions that have made our country the greatest nation on earth, and it begs the question what language changed in the constitution since 2008 to reverse his position."

To Rick Santorum's chagrin, a seven-year-old website that redefined his surname to have an unflattering sexual connotation, has been given new life. After a Roll Callarticle addressed Santorum's "Google problem" and Stephen Colbert mocked it on his show, the creator of the original anti-Santorum site said this week that he'll be relaunching it.

Dan Savage, a gay sex columnist, wrote, "The website that's still giving Rick Santorum fits—www.spreadingsantorum.com—hasn't been updated since 2004. But we will be relaunching the site in the next few weeks. Stay tuned!"

Next week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans to bring a short-term spending bill to the floor for a vote that would keep the government running at its current levels for one month to buy time to debate and negotiate with House Republicans about cuts for the rest of the year.

Our local politics and business reporter Scott Kraus caught up with Sen. Bob Casey at an event in the Lehigh Valley and chatted with him about Reid's idea.

“I think we should," Casey told Kraus. "If anything it gives us time to have discussions and negotiations with Republicans. I think there is a broad-based consensus on reducing spending and on reducing the deficit and debt but it has to be done in a way that is focused on how do we best do that in the context of continuing to create jobs and grow the economy."

“That leads to a set of questions we’ve got to ask ourselves when we are cutting as we must do. We have to ask ourselves is it a good idea to cut here versus there. And I think the American people want us to have answers to: Is it a good idea to cut a billion out of medical research at NIH? Is it a good idea to cut law enforcement and slashing it like the Republicans have proposed. I think a lot of that debate and discussion should take place over weeks rather than four days next week."

Speaker of the House John Boehner has rejected the idea, saying he will not support spending at the current levels even for another month. Last week the House passed a bill that cut federal funding by $60 billion for the rest of the fiscal 2011 year. If the two chambers can't agree before March 4, the government would shutdown.

In a phone interview, Rep. Charlie Dent said there will likely be a short term extension to avoid a shutdown, but it should be tied to some cuts. But he said there will have to be an understanding that if there's a short term bill they won't reach the $60 billion in cuts that House Republicans included in last week's measure.

Democrats began calling voters today in districts held by Republicans, targeting their GOP congressman's vote on last week's spending bill that sliced a number of federal programs.

In Pennsylvania, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has singled out Lehigh Valley's Charlie Dent, as well as, Lou Barletta, Jim Gerlach and a few others. Bucks County Mike Fitzpatrick is not included in this round of robocalls.

Each call is a little different. While the Dent call focuses on cutting medical research, as does the Gerlach one, the Barletta call hits him for transportation and infrastructure cuts.

Here's the text of what 15th district voters will hear if they receive one of the DCCC calls:

Everyone knows we need to cut spending and reduce the deficit in Washington. And we can do that by reforming government, cutting wasteful spending, and getting rid of taxpayer subsidies for the Big Oil companies that are making record profits.

Instead, Representative Charlie Dent voted for a partisan plan that will mean 20,000 fewer science researchers in labs and huge cuts in disease research. This makes it harder to compete with India and China and sets back life saving research into cancer and other diseases. His priorities don’t make any sense.

Call Charlie Dent at [PHONE] and tell him to cut taxpayer subsides to Big Oil, not life-saving science and research to keep America ahead.

UPDATE: Toomey's event in York mentioned below has been canceled. No word on why.

Although the conversation in Washington has shifted considerably from jobs to cuts, Sen. Pat Toomey is crisscrossing the state on his week off from legislating to chat with the private sector about what they need to generate employment.

The junior senator held a jobs roundtable in Erie on Tuesday and toured manufacturing plants. On Thursday, he'll be in Harrisburg and York for more discussions.

He's meeting with 30 area businesses at the Harrisburg Regional Chamber "to discuss road blocks to job creation" and then will tour Pennsylvania Truck Centers in York to "discuss the impact of Environmental Protection Agency regulations on job creation in the trucking and manufacturing industries."

On the latter issue, the EPA is up there with the health care law of things Republicans would like to dismantle. The House Republicans targeted the EPA with a number of spending cuts last week. Toomey throughout the campaign was vocal about his distaste for federal government's environmental regulations. He is a critic of the Democrats' cap and trade proposals as well as the drilling moratoriums in the wake of the BP oil spill, saying it killed jobs.

In October, according to Music Inc. magazine, the good folks at Nazareth's own C.F. Martin & Co. guitars stopped in Shanghai for the Music China conference.

Much to their surprise, they discovered they were already there.

Some other C.F. Martin was hawking guitars in the exhibitor's section of the trade show. The impostor had even appropriated the company's logo and "established in 1833" tag line. It was selling knock-offs of popular Martin models.

Sounds horrible and unfair, right? C.F. Martin blasted out a press release saying it had been the victim of a counterfeiter. But it's not illegal in China, a music industry attorney told the magazine.

The state's senior Sen. Robert Casey Jr. will strum on over to C.F. Martin headquarters on Tuesday to call on China to enact fair trade practices that protect trademarks like C.F. Martin's.

"Like many other American companies, C.F. Martin & Co. has faced difficulties doing business with the Chinese. Since 2005, the company has fought to register its mark with the Chinese government to protect its brand and to prevent the production of counterfeit guitars in China," Casey's office said in its media advisory.

It's recess time in Washington, DC sandwiched between last week's frenzied spending debate in the House and next week's encore in the Senate. It's a little quiet here in the nation's capital, so if you're starving for news, here's a little something to hold you over.

First bite: President Obama made a campaign stop in Ohio Tuesday. What? It wasn't? Oh. Well then, Obama visited a crucial political swing state Tuesday on official White House business to visit with small-business owners and sell his 2012 budget proposal.

Second bite: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed Tuesday that Congress extend the spending debate an extra month, which would keep the federal government spending at its current levels a little longer. Speaker of the House John Boehner basically said, "hell no," setting up a surefire impasse that would lead to a government shutdown.

Third bite: The hot male Senator is not running for President. Bummer.

Jonathan Pollard, an American intelligence analyst, was sentenced to a life sentence in 1987 for spying for Israel. In the 25 years since, there's been a fervent lobbying effort by Israel and Jewish Americans to free Pollard. In January, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent a letter to President Obama requesting Pollard's release, saying he's "served longer in prison than any person convicted of similar crimes."

Now former Senator Arlen Specter is calling on his friend for a favor. He sent Obama a letter, according to the Jerusalem Post, also contending that Pollard had served long enough. Specter has long been one of the most vocal advocates in national politics for Jewish and Israeli issues, making frequent trips during his time in public office to the Middle East.

"I think his spying was a very serious crime," Specter wrote. "Unfortunately, spying is not an uncommon practice even between allies and friendly nations. Considering all the factors, in my judgment, Pollard should not have a life sentence without parole or pardon."

Others have recently written to Obama, pleading for Pollard's release recently, including former Vice President Dan Quayle.

Rick Santorum, former Pennsylvania Senator and aspiring President of New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina, reached a massive audience last night. Too bad for him that audience was made up mostly of liberal arts kids drinking Natty Lights in their dorms and debating modern Russian literature in a Post-Tolstoy world while the Colbert Report aired on their flat screens.

Stephen Colbert, piggy-backing on a recent article in Roll Call, addressed Santorum's "Google problem" on his show last night. While I don't think I'm allowed to say exactly what that is on a Tribune-owned blog, I can let Colbert do it for me.

While this is one bit of publicity that Santorum probably could have done without, the man has never shied from the dramatics. His word choices and analogies often generate controversy. Just this week, Santorum described the union protesters in Wisconsin as drug addicts. Last month, he criticized President Obama for not supporting abortion because he is a black man, saying abortion is a civil rights issue.

Local area Republicans Charlie Dent, Mike Fitzpatrick and Lou Barletta all voted for the House Republicans' 2011 budget that sliced $60 billion from various federal programs for the next seven months of the fiscal year.

It's important to note, of course, that those cuts are really just a starting point for negotiations since the Democratically-controlled Senate and White House have made it clear that they would not allow such deep cuts to go forward. The impasse could result in a government shutdown a la 1995.

Interestingly, although in the end the three congressmen fell in line with their leadership, they voted more than a dozen times last week during a marathon debate on the floor to reject additional spending cuts or to save programs' funding.

Dent and Fitzpatrick, for example, joined Democrats in voting against an amendment to bar funding for dues to the United Nations. They also joined the other party in blocking an amendment to reduce funding for EPA science and technology programs by $64 million.

All three voted to restore funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program and the Community Oriented Policing Services, amendments offered by Democrats.

Dent voted against reductions in funding for the National Endowment of Arts as well as an amendment that would defund Planned Parenthood. Both were adopted anyway.

In the spirit of having it both ways, the three seem to be trying to toe a difficult line right now -- appease the moderate base in their centrist districts while also making good on the national Republican platform to cut, cut, cut.

Once upon a time not even one year ago, two men's names adorned nearly every headline in Pennsylvania political news. The Arlen Specter v. Joe Sestak battle was messy, often cringe-worthy, but never short on drama. Their defeats, Specter in the Democratic primary against Sestak and Sestak in the general election against Pat Toomey meant their every move and opinion no longer necessitated coverage.

But both men managed to get their names back in print this weekend, as their respective hometown newspapers followed up on their next career moves.

Specter, at 81 years old, has opened his own solo private law practice. He's simply "Arlen Specter, Attorney-at-Law," with a small corner office in center city Philadelphia. "I like the name," Specter told the Philadelphia Inquirer. "I've got a big investment in the name."

Sestak, on the other hand, isn't quite ready for the private sector. Ruling out a lobbying job on K Street, he told the Delaware County Times that he'd like to stay in public life. Some have suggested that he may make a run for governor in 2014, something he has not denied, but hasn't hinted at himself either.

The author of the piece notes that Sestak still talks like he's campaigning, describing perfectly Sestak's "assortment of seafaring malapropisms and statistics peppered with oddball stock phrases."

If Congress can't agree on how to fund the government for the rest of the year and thus force a government shutdown, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey doesn't want a paycheck.

Casey and California Democrat Barbara Boxer introduced legislation Thursday to freeze members of Congress and President Obama's pay during a government shutdown. Boxer said it would also keep them from receiving that pay retroactively. Their paychecks would also cease if Congress does not raise the debt limit before it hits the imposed $14.3 trillion ceiling this spring.

"This legislation is in furtherance of that goal of avoiding a government shutdown," Casey said at a press conference. "We've got to take steps to make sure elected officials here are living by the same rules as everyone else."

Boxer explained that during a government shutdown when federal employees don't get paid, members of Congress still do because their salaries are under mandatory spending and not subject to the yearly appropriations process.

The two senators visited with Majority Leader Harry Reid immediately after introducing the bill to the press and asked him to "hotline" the measure, which means the bill would be voted on by unanimous consent unless anyone objects.

Bob Casey has been a U.S. Senator for four years and has decades-long recognition from his father, the former governor of the same name. Pat Toomey has been a U.S. Senator for less than two months and his public life prior was six years representing the Lehigh Valley.

One is a Democrat and the other is a Republican.

But in Pennsylvania, the two men receive nearly the same approval rating and about one-third of voters have no opinion about them, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday morning.

Casey's re-elect numbers are fairly high, but he'd likely feel more comfortable if they were over 50 percent. Of those polled, 45 percent said they'd vote for him while 35 percent would pick the Republican. Just nine percent said it would depend on the GOP candidate.

Slightly more than half said Casey shares the same views on major issues as President Obama -- an alliance that Republicans will try to use against Casey in the 2012 election.

Quinnpiac surveyed 1,366 registered voters from Feb. 8 through Feb. 14. The survey has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.

Sen. Pat Toomey took his debt bill on the road (or three blocks from the U.S. Capitol) to the conservative Heritage Foundation Wednesday preaching to the converted that the United States is "screaming" toward a debt burden similar to Greece, which neared bankruptcy last year.

"The thing that worries me as a much as anything else is the danger that we could have a dangerous and catastrophic shock," Toomey said, listing problems like the collapse of the dollar or a run on inflation. "I am not predicting that any of these things are going to happen tomorrow ... I am suggesting that these are the things that happen to countries that run too much debt for too long."

The culprit, Toomey said, is too much spending. But he's feeling optimistic that the conversation is changing.

He said he is "so proud" of conservative Republicans in the U.S. House who demanded their leadership make deeper cuts in a bill to finance the government for the rest of the 2011 fiscal year.

"This is very good news for the hope that we're going to be able to get this under control...it's changing the dynamic in this town," he said.

Toomey said the debt ceiling debate is an opportunity to discuss spending cuts. He said he does not oppose raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit, but will only support it if it's tied to other reforms. He called the Obama administration plea to raise the debt ceiling as "shrill," for trying to "intimidate" lawmakers into voting to increase it or else the nation would default.

Toomey's legislation would require the Treasury Secretary to ensure payments to bondholders take priority over other spending. Critics say it would force too many dramatic cuts across federal agencies.

During a question and answer period at the end of his 25-minute speech, Toomey was asked about another argument against the bill: that it puts payments to China before American needs.

Toomey said most debt held is by Americans through such accounts as 401Ks and pension funds. According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, "at the end of 2010, about 53 percent of US debt held by the public was held domestically."

At the state Republicans' winter committee dinner last Friday, nearly everyone who spoke made declarations about unseating U.S. Sen. Bob Casey in 2012, but there was very little mention of what serious contenders were willing to make the bid.

That is, other than Marc Scaringi.

Scaringi hosted a reception, complete with an ice cream buffet, for statewide Republicans to meet and greet the Senate aspirant. Many that shook his hand invited him to come to their area to begin making contacts. Taking the offer to heart, Tuesday night he'll address the Beaver County Republican Committee.

A handful walked around with blue Scaringi for Senate buttons. His host committee has 30 people.

The former Rick Santorum Senate staffer and Harrisburg attorney is the only official Republican in the running for Casey's seat. Others, like state senator Jake Corman or U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent, haven't ruled it out, but haven't made any moves either.

Scaringi said his opposition to President Obama inspired him to seek public office.

"It pulled me right out of my private life...I feel like I want to respond to this man," he said. "I'm driven by the Obama administration and Bob Casey is one of his strongest allies in the Senate."

Scaringi, who deferred from law school to work for Santorum, said his former boss was surprised that he would try to take on Casey, but wished him well. Santorum recently implied that Casey would be hard to beat.

Clearly the underdog even now when he's the only name on the ballot, Scaringi says he brings a rare outsider/insider perspective that other candidates who will vie for the Republican nominee won't have.

"I've been on the outside for nine years, I am my own man," he said. But then noting his service to Santorum on Capitol Hill said, "But I've already been there, I've seen the pressures."

Republican Pat Toomey will celebrate the budget week holiday here in Washington by addressing a conservative-friendly crowd at the Heritage Foundation Wednesday afternoon to espouse on his favorite topic: the debt.

According to his Senate office, Toomey will "discuss his new legislation, the Full Faith and Credit Act, and debunk many of the myths that have surrounded this important debate."

Your Pennsylvania political reporters are in the process of writing an ode to the Toomster. It will be titled "Toomey and the Debt" and the chorus will be sung to the tune of Elton John's "Benny and the Jets."

Stay tuned. Lyrics to come.

UPDATED at 2 pm:

Well folks, courtesy of one Dan Malloy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who moonlights as a lyricist, we bring you "Toomey and the Debt."

VERSE 1Hey kids, check out the new senator The spotlight's on the budget And he'll be right in the center He will crunch the numbers tonight So stick around To hear a speech that will leave you Asleep on the ground

CHORUS: Say, Barry and Harry have you seen them yet The two best friends around, Toomey and the debt They know each other oh so well Oh Toomey he can talk all day He's got the Wall Street past, the Club for Growth You know I read it in the Morning CallToomey and the debt

VERSE 2:Hey kids, you know we're in a crisis Maybe gonna default And Toomey doesn't like this We shall survive, if we only just pass his billThe Dems say he wants to Pay China FirstBut solvency's a bitter pill

“As families across America are cutting back to live within their means, President Obama’s budget falls well short in the area of belt tightening,” Sen. Toomey said. “The president’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 puts taxpayers on the hook for an astonishing $3.73 trillion in spending, increasing the debt by $1.1 trillion on top of a record breaking $1.6 trillion deficit for fiscal year 2011.

The federal government is suffering from a spending addiction, and if our leaders don’t deal with this problem soon, we all will pay the price. The president’s five-year non-security, discretionary spending freeze is too little too late. After a 25% increase in spending since 2008, the president has to offer much more aggressive reductions if we are ever going to get our spending under control.

To make matters worse, the president’s budget increases taxes and completely ignores the drivers of the country’s deficit problem—the entitlement programs. As we approach the statutory federal debt limit, it’s unfortunate that the president wants Congress to increase it without any budget reforms. Instead, his proposed budget kicks the can down the road while piling higher deficits on our already exploding federal debt.

We cannot borrow, spend and tax our way to prosperity. The best thing we can do for job creation is keep taxes low and return fiscal responsibility to our government. I had hoped that the president would have taken the steps necessary to put our government on a sustainable fiscal trajectory. Unfortunately, the president’s budget represents a failure of leadership at a time when leadership is desperately needed.”

Greetings from the comfort of the Harrisburg Hilton where tonight the Republicans gather for a state committee meeting and hear from Texas Republican congressman Pete Sessions of "I attend parties with Mike Fitzpatrick rather than taking the oath of the office on the House floor" fame.

Please excuse the sporadic nature of the snacks. I have, however, learned an interesting lesson: A few weeks of not keeping up a blog idea you developed gives Politico the right to steal the idea. Noted.

First bite: Conservatives' annual CPAC convention is well into its second day, an event that is kind of like a Miss America Pageant for Republican presidential hopefuls. Yesterday, Pennsylvania's former senator Rick Santorum, who so badly wants to be President of New Hampshire, broke the news that "America belongs to God." He also said he and reality star Sarah Palin are aiiight after she called him a "knuckle-dragging Neanderthal." Friday's schedule includes contestants, er, politicians, John Thune of South Dakota, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney told the crowd that President Obama is a "weak president." You can follow a thorough live blog of the conference by WaPost's The Fix here.

Second bite: After 18 days of intense, but peaceful protests in his country, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak got the people's very loud message and resigned after 30 years of rule. U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, who is the chairman of the Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement, "Now, more than ever, the people of Egypt will need the support of friends around the world as they work to develop true democratic institutions based on the rule of law, adherence to Egypt’s international commitments and respect for universally accepted human rights."

Only two bites because all news this afternoon is either CPAC or Egypt related. But enjoy some crumbs:

Crumbs: Republicans agree to cut even more spending. (CNN) / Ethics group says U.S. congressmen shouldn't sleep in their offices. (Time). / It's White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs' last day on the job (NY Times)